Everybody look what’s going down.
–The Buffalo Springfield
We’ve discussed the Occupy Movement here in other posts. We’ve talked about what protesters could do, should do, and what we non-protesters can do. Personally, I’ve been interested in what the movement is and what it means.
Seascraper has drawn comparisons between the Occupy Movement and the Tea Party. But aside from the protests, the anger at the status quo, and the apparent lack of coherence, the similarities end there for me. The Tea Party is like a kid (with the approval of his parents) putting his hands in his ears, and in a raised voice, going, “La la la, I can’t hear you.” It’s a grumpier, more inflexible version of the same old Republican message, and, I suspect, a reaction to the slow realization that the conservative movement, while still powerful, is intellectually played out.
The Occupy Movement can be accused of incoherence, but this apparent incoherence has more to do with its regional and widespread nature and democratic nature. Amberpaw drew my attention to the global impact of the movement in one of her comments:
My challenge to you (which you are, of course, free to ignore) is to take the word “Occupy” and put a city after it, and then google the combination for at least 10 cities in different parts of the USA and at least 5 countries.
I did. And I suggest taking Amber’s challenge. The movement is truly global. From Brisbane to Bristol to Boston to Bakersfield to Bangkok. Each protest is different. Some iterations are more organized with deeper participation, others might be a handful of people. Whatever your local Occupy Movement is, it is not the co-opted, profitized temper tantrum that characterizes the Tea Party.
For the Left, part of the Occupy Movement’s purpose, I think, is to relearn the lessons of the 1960s. This may not be a stated goal of the movement, but it’s certainly an effect. In the last 30 years of American conservatism–both the Democratic and Republican versions–we have forgotten how to make our voices heard. People are now taking to the streets again. The results may not always be graceful or articulate or pretty, but it’s happening.
Now it seems Occupy is teaching organized labor. The New York Times reports,
Union leaders, who were initially cautious in embracing the Occupy movement, have in recent weeks showered the protesters with help — tents, air mattresses, propane heaters and tons of food. The protesters, for their part, have joined in union marches and picket lines across the nation. About 100 protesters from Occupy Wall Street are expected to join a Teamsters picket line at the Sotheby’s auction house in Manhattan on Wednesday night to back the union in a bitter contract fight.
Labor unions, marveling at how the protesters have fired up the public on traditional labor issues like income inequality, are also starting to embrace some of the bold tactics and social media skills of the Occupy movement.
Last Wednesday, a union transit worker and a retired Teamster were arrested for civil disobedience inside Sotheby’s after sneaking through the entrance to harangue those attending an auction — echoing the lunchtime ruckus that Occupy Wall Street protesters caused weeks earlier at two well-known Manhattan restaurants owned by Danny Meyer, a Sotheby’s board member.
Organized labor’s public relations staff is also using Twitter, Tumblr and other social media much more aggressively after seeing how the Occupy protesters have used those services to mobilize support by immediately transmitting photos and videos of marches, tear-gassing and arrests. The Teamsters, for example, have beefed up their daily blog and posted many more photos of their battles with BMW, US Foods and Sotheby’s on Facebook and Twitter.
“The Occupy movement has changed unions,” said Stuart Appelbaum, the president of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union. “You’re seeing a lot more unions wanting to be aggressive in their messaging and their activity. You’ll see more unions on the street, wanting to tap into the energy of Occupy Wall Street.”
Unions have long stuck to traditional tactics like picketing. But inspired by the Occupy protests, labor leaders are talking increasingly of mobilizing the rank and file and trying to flex their muscles through large, boisterous marches, including nationwide marches planned for Nov. 17.
Organized labor is also seizing on the simplicity of the Occupy movement’s message, which criticizes the great wealth of the top 1 percent of Americans compared with the economic struggles of much of the bottom 99 percent.
A memo that the A.F.L.-C.I.O. sent out last week recommended that unions use the Occupy message about inequality and the 99 percent far more in their communications with members, employers and voters.
Indeed, as part of its contract battle with Verizon, the communications workers’ union has began asserting in its picket signs that Verizon and its highly paid chief executive are part of the 1 percent, while the Verizon workers who face demands for concessions are part of the 99 percent. A dozen Verizon workers plan to begin walking from Albany to Manhattan on Thursday in a “March for the 99 percent.”
“We think the Occupy movement has given voice to something very basic about what’s going on in our country right now,” said Damon Silvers, the A.F.L.-C.I.O.’s policy director. “The fact that they’ve figured out certain concepts and language for doing that, we think is really important and positive.”
I just reread the lyrics of Buffalo Springfield’s “For What It’s Worth.” It’s remarkable how appropriate they remain. Granted, by 1967 the country had already been experiencing more than a decade of protests and thousands were dying in a misguided war, but there’s something important happening here.
That’s always been a favorite of mine. Here are the lyrics:
I’d like to comment on one other aspect. Mark wrote:
In the interest of something like intellectual discipline, I wonder if Mark and Deborah would agree that Occupy Everything is at least inspired by, if not rooted in, the Arab Spring movement that began in December 2010 in Tunesia.
I think we are seeing a world-wide recognition and push-back against the class warfare that moneyed interests have been fighting against the rest of us for decades. In my view, it began in the Middle East — a region, not coincidentally, where the role of US multi-national corporations is particularly unsavory. The dilemma of Arab Spring has always been that while America (and our public figures) must support the clear commitment to freedom and democracy that it embodies, its targets are oppressive governments and regimes that American government and private industry have kept in power for decades.
In my view, this dilemma has now come home. Occupy Everything speaks to and for the 99%. Our government does not.
That dissonance is inconsistent with a free republic, and if our political system has any life left, we in the 99% will change that dissonance.
word for it. I certainly wouldn’t be surprised. Wikipedia hasn’t decided yet.
The world-wide protest phenomenon reminds me of 1968. We haven’t reached that intensity and the material conditions of our society are much changed. But there’s a global realization that our entire planet is on the wrong path. That our economic system has corrupted our political system. That our futures look bleak. That our government can’t do what’s needed.
We could afford conservatism when our infrastructure was in tact, our country wasn’t experiencing enormous personal and public debt, and our economy was growing. The free lunch is over and we’re finding ourselves with empty bellies worried about our next meal.
I think you give “conservatism” a bad name. 🙂
I think that conservatives like William F. Buckley and Barry Goldwater would be appalled at what is being done in the name of conservatism today.
The infrastructure that we once had (and that our greed-driven right wing has squandered) was created by conservatives and liberals, left and right, who were able to find common ground and make investments for the public good. Richard Nixon, who was no liberal, is far to the left of today’s GOP. Dwight Eisenhower would be castigated by today’s GOP thugs as a left-wing extremist — let’s not forget his prescient farewell speech (emphasis mine):
This coming from a solid much-loved Republican two-term president, who was also a bona-fide WWII hero (he was the Supreme Allied Commander who led the victory against the Axis powers in WWII).
I hope it is not too late for America to regain the health and vigor we displayed during the twentieth century. I am convinced that the Occupy Everything movement (like the protests of 1968) is among the most positive signs of health and recovery I’ve seen since the Reagan era.
I hope we are able to build on this movement to make America again be a beacon of hope and light for the entire world.
Part of a talk through the locked gates of Harvard Yard via “people’s mic” yesterday: http://youtu.be/8L27jTvuKB8 and a longer interview, in which Ahmed Maher states that democracy is not government done behind closed doors. Sadly, here in Massachusetts legislation IS drafted behind closed doors and shoved down our throats, without neutral cost studies (casinos) or caring about the impact on small business (power grab over indigent defense) – all is not well with democracy in Massachusetts and in the USA and our children’s future IS at stake here as much as it is elsewhere (43% poverty for children in vast swaths of Boston???) anyway – here is a longer interview in which Ahmed Maher talks about the importance of electoral politics, and civics, and the evolution towards a democratic and just society – very interesting stuff http://thinkprogress.org/special/2011/10/18/347143/egyptian-protester-99-percenters-can-win/
once had a purpose other than dismantling democracy in favor of the capitalist elite. Maybe there was something to Buckley when he wrote God and Man at Yale, but I don’t see conservatism as contributing anything of value since 1980.The National Review was crap long before Buckley retired. Goldwater is more interesting; he actually had some dimension.
My guess is that whatever ideas conservatism offered– in my opinion, conservatism is less a matter of ideas than a matter of attitude–are now reaching their end. Conservatism solutions to the problems we have are little better than fantasy.
The Left experienced a similar situation in the 1970s when the Weather Underground were active. It’s not that the WU ever had much support or effect, but they were trying to extend a movement that was petering out.
I wonder if the historians among us might comment on what Dwight Eisenhower thought of William F. Buckley, Barry Goldwater, and “conservatism”. Has anybody researched this?
I know ideology will force many to dismiss this idea but it is possible.
know anything of the Tea Party? I doubt it. I don’t think Tunisians spend as much time in front of the cable news as Americans.
And wouldn’t Arabs be more likely to learn about the racism and anti-Muslim aspects (even if such aspects were not a main part of the movement)?
I know some people have such visceral hatred for the Tea Party movement that they refuse to give them credit for anything but I think it’s pretty rational to put 2 + 2.
Just as I think the current OWS movement got their stimulus from the Tea Party crowd, albeit with far less organization. They’re both grass roots movements, with some corporate/union support… opponents try to marginalize them and point to fringe aspects (Nazi posters or rapes) to define them.
The difference for now is the Tea Party people changed history with their support for political candidates getting elected. OWS is starting to annoy more regular people and one by one they will be removed from cities all over the country. Supporters of OWS are fighting a good fight but it isn’t working. Those saying OWS has already won based on the change in the dialogue are reaching at straws. The current debt commission is a tangible result of the Tea Party movement and OWS will have nothing like this to point at… ever.
Sorry, John. This comment is more rooted in your projection and speculation than reality. If the most constructive impacts you can cite for the Tea Party are the political candidates it elected and the debt commission, then you’ve already admitted defeat.
Michelle Bachmann typifies the candidates. The debt commission demonstrates the catastrophic failure of our legislative process caused by the Tea Party and GOP.
Tea Party influence to OWS. The latter was certainly aware of the former. There’s a prima facie case for it.
The idea that the Tea Party influenced Tunisians, however, is bizarre. Your only reasoning seems to be that the Tea Party came first and, therefore, influenced the Arab Spring. If that’s your reasoning, it’s faulty reasoning. If that’s not your reasoning, you need to provide some evidence. As Sagan’s Rule states, “extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.” In this case, you’ve provided no evidence.
Other than expressing outrage, the Tea Party, in my opinion, has contributed nothing good to our country. I don’t hate it. Still, that’s all beside the point. My question, which you bother to address, was based on facts or the lack thereof, not my feelings.
I tried to do your job for you and find some documented connection between Arab Spring and the Tea Party. I didn’t find one. TeaParty.org is worried about OWS hijacking Arab Spring, not taking credit for it:
I don’t have anything particularly constructive or interesting to say, but I did want to tell you that I really enjoyed this post. Thanks for writing it.
That’s constructive enough.
Google “Occupy the highway” – here is one story http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/blogpost/post/occupy-the-highway-why-theyre-here/2011/11/11/gIQAgBS3BN_blog.html
Occupy should have been there on Greece. The Greek Prime Minister offered to put a new austerity package to a vote in his own country and the E.U. flipped out.
Greece currently has extremely high tax rates which are compounded by the austerity programs of the IMF and the EU. I haven’t heard anybody except the Greek opposition leader Antonis Samaras take advantage of that.
I appreciate Amber’s energetic posts but right now they are contentless cheers without action behind them. Most establishment Democrats are in favor of giving international orgs like the EU, the IMF and the UN the power to raise taxes on individual nation states. Occupy could either break with the Dems or take the side of the globalist neoliberal bankster badguys. They did neither and the movement stayed a content-free soapbox.
I know that’s what Fox News and WSJ is saying, but Occupy is not a Democratic organization. It has no leadership to speak of, it probably doesn’t qualify as a loose confederation.
Raising taxes on on individual nation states? What are you talking about? Most Lefties are against the IMF, which permits banks to exploit Third World countries. I’m a Democrat, and I have to say, I’ve never heard anyone talking about giving foreign powers the authority to raise taxes.
Sorry man, but you sound like the Last Horseman on this one. You need some reliable sources here, and I’m not talking Howard Kurtz.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financialcrisis/8854350/Hillary-Clinton-Greek-economic-sacrifices-are-painful-but-necessary.html
of the protest thing, and it looks like Occupy is taking Greece as a model. See Daily Kos.
The commenter there gets it
The public sector unions in the USA are not there yet, they are still ready to foreclose on the middle class with tax increases up the wazoo as long as jobs are preserved.
You’ll know Occupy is real when the Dems/unions are afraid of it.
The E.U. flipped out because the vote was certain to fail.
Though the tax rates are high the actual receipts are far far lower: Greeks are ridiculously evasive in tax payments. Egregiously, ridiculously evasive: they’d rather pay bribes to the tax inspectors than the actual taxes… The Greeks could solve a lot of their problems by lowering their rates and collecting (that is to say paying) all of it… It is evident, however, that they don’t wish to do this, and that their politicians aren’t willing to confront the general populace on the issue.
This is ridiculous: The EU is not an “international organization” It is a voluntary union of states of Europe and not even a comprehensive one at that… The powers of taxation, such as they might be, are those enumerated in the union membership.
The IMF and and the UN have no tax-levying powers, whatsoever… The IMF is a bank and the UN is a debating society.
1. anti foreclosure actions
2. The march from Wall Street to DC to rally attention to the Supercommittee and its secrecy.
3. Opposition to paying for banker’s mistakes with what should be a fiduciary trust – social security
It is all here, if you want to read what is going on rather than make hysterical sounding and unsupported accusation, Seascraper.
See: http://www.occupyboston.org/
all you have to do is look at what is planned for 11/21, for 11/17, etc – the Dewey Square camp is like the center of a wheel, where there are spokes and a circular hub – most activity of a planning, active, and organizing kind occurs off site, but governance, and rallies, step offs for marches, bonding between the core folks, that happens still at Dewey Square, at least for now. Mind you, I am largely a watcher and offsite media responder given the realities of my life and health – I do not consider myself a “leader” or a core person but a supporter, as many of us see ourselves, in what is an evolving organization and movement still in a very early stage.
!
My kids would say that too, “Mom – YOU are NOT listening.” I would have listened. Heard every word. But because I did not agree, the fact that I “listened” did not change my opinion at all.
To ME it seems like YOU aren’t listening. Unlike the pluralistic politics of Greece, where the socialists (et. al) have been viable, well organized parties electing candidates for decades – Occupy is at most two months old as a movement.
Each local occupy is totally independent and may not agree with any other occupy!
While there is some travel back and forth between groups, and some very early linkage – Occupy is still in its infancy and evolving. What other two month old would YOU ask to solve the problems of the USA?
The rate of evolution, and the wide variety of philosophys all accepted – and the totally unsurprising but difficult growing pains are ALL to be expected.
OH – and if you haven’t noticed: The United States of America is not Greece
As a result, what works and makes sense in, say, Detroit, Michigan is almost certainly a dreadful fit for Salt Lake City, Utah – just as one example.
The saying I think applies is “The journey of a thousand miles begins with just one step.” You could say that is demonstrated by the march from Wall Street to D.C. (and yes, I do see real leadership developing but guess what? THAT takes MORE than two months.
It is true that they are changing the topic of conversation to economic justice issues, which is being discussed at a level I don’t think it was before. The only question I have is whether they might have been better to have said they would have the physical occupy Wall Street for some specified period of time “to wake up America” , to be followed by various later actions to “teach” America.
My reason for thinking this is that it is hard to think of how OWS ends positively. If they are driven out by the police and stay out, that will be negative. If it just fizzles out, that is possibly worse. If they had stated an end date, the last date could be a celebration of the movement and a time to articulate their future plans. (Note the Vietnam moratorium in 1969 and the slightly under a week when the veterans camped on the mall in DC would not have been viewed as positively if they had continued for months. )
I write this with trepidation, knowing that most will disagree, but can anybody explain to me how this can end moving the country in the direction of reducing – not widening – the income gap? I agree 100% that the changes in income distribution are changing this country forever and in a very bad way and that the OWS people are doing an important job speaking out.
I am disapointed that few official Democrats have picked up the issue. Even something as simple as the President saying that he will ask CBO to estimate the impact on income distribution of any bill sent to him and that he would veto any measure that would likely increase inequity would be a small step in the right direction. Think of how different people would feel if that were the stated position of all the Supercommittee Democrats. (If explained, I can’t believe that a big majority of Americans would not find this principle fairer than the Norquist pledge.)
It also would help politically – the Republicans have all supported the Ryan budget. With its elimination of capital gains and the estate tax and the continuation of the Bush tax cuts, it would increase income inequality even before considering that it guts Medicare.
I know that we need to actually reverse the trend, but this would be a first step that at least demands that we don’t move further in that direction.
This maps is a few weeks old, but gives you a sense of how the occupy movement is growing across the US and globally.
View Occupy Everywhere in a larger map